Eyebrows raised over £3m payment to Stan Kroenke

Arsenal’s latest accounts reveal that a company owned by the majority shareholder, Stan Kroenke, has received a £3m payment from the club.

KSE LLC, was paid the sum for ‘strategic and advisory services’ in relation to Arsenal’s broadband division, the media arm of the club (including the official website).

While it’s relatively normal for any company to pay advisory fees to directors, or indeed other companies, it raises fears that it is, by any other standards, a dividend payment, something that would set the American apart from the previous owners of the club who refused to take those payments, instead acting as ‘custodians’.

With Arsenal’s AGM upcoming, it’s something that fans will want addressed and for which there’ll be a demand for clarity. It’s not a case that Kroenke has simply pocketed £3m given his wealth, but where the money went and for what purpose would be interesting questions to pose.

Speaking in 2011, Kroenke admitted it was normal for owners in US sport to take money out of clubs they own.

“A lot of owners in the US do [take money out] No one ever says anything about it.”

He must know, however, that as this is not the norm at Arsenal, people are going to question why exactly this payment was made. Especially when it more or less tallies with the extra income the utterly unnecessary 3% rise in ticket prices generated this season this is something of a PR own goal for Kroenke.

What on earth does the government, and what they do, have to do with what’s going on at Arsenal?

I’ve acknowledged that Kroenke is perfectly within his rights to do what he did, it will be shown be above board and perfectly legal, I’m sure, but to dismiss any discussion of what’s happening with words like ‘poisonous’ or ‘mercenary’ means you’re unwilling to to engage in genuine in that discussion properly.

I’m not a member of the AST, and to describe Amy as ‘mercenary’ is so ridiculous I don’t even know where to start.

And speaking as somebody who has been taxed seven ways from Sunday in Ireland because of the recession and the complete cunt they made of the economy here, I don’t need to be lectured to on that from someone like you.

And having just looked you up, you were banned from here earlier this week for your comments about the Partizan banner.

Don’t come back.

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4 years ago

gooner

well, if we won’t spend it on a CB then somebody better use it.

on the other hand, “business owner takes a tiny profit out of his business ”
how shocking!

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4 years ago

Bould's Eyeliner

I assume you are American, as I too think this is rather amusing, but I would imagine it has more to do with cultural perspective than anything. In America, business and profit are gods. Our country was built on trade and profit, and so are our sports teams. We do everything we can to ensure the quality of most teams with fair drafts, regulations, etc. There is an exactness by which we approach our sports. In America, a sports club is owned by a businessman, and therein lies the hierarchical relationship.

In England, I would have to imagine that the football club has stronger geographical roots than the average American sports club, and therefore, in order to maintain rapport with the locals, majority owner of, let’s say Arsenal, would have to assume the approach in which it was assumed that, to use a modern idiom, is that “no one is bigger than the club.” There is a cultural, almost religious aspect to the European football club, and Kroenke taking a bit of profit out of it, feels almost sacrilegious.

If this assumption is false, then please by all means correct me. I am actually very curious.

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4 years ago

Bould's Eyeliner

Oh and I see that many people are accusing Kroenke of pocketing the money for himself. While I do not know if this is true or not, the direct quote from the article states, “KSE LLC, was paid the sum for ‘strategic and advisory services’ in relation to Arsenal’s broadband division, the media arm of the club (including the official website).”

KSE i’m assuming is Kroenke Sports Enterprises, and in America, a 3 million fee for what I’m assuming is marketing consultation for an entity as large as Arsenal is ridiculously small and miniscule. It’s like paying for something with Ozil’s fingernail. I am very much hoping that this is just a case of Kroenke actually saving Arsenal some money by doing some smart business between entities that he owns.

Then of course I could be wrong… more likely is that we will simply never know.

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4 years ago

JC

Whats the big deal. He owns the majority of the club. Wenger has sizable transfer kitty.

He took out 3 million pounds for whatever reason for the first time since he took control.

This is not the end of the world. It’s not like he’s running a charity.

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4 years ago

Mongolian Gooner

Must be goddamn frustrating for ST holders. They were already super expensive, then the club goes and sucks a chunk more from the wallets of dedicated supporters, only so that a rich man can have some more money.

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4 years ago

ST holder

Dont know how things work in Mongolia but here in the West, football is business. It belongs in the category of entertainment. The football clubs are privately owned companies and are governed by shareholders and a board of directors.

The clubs/companies pay tax to UK and the clubs practices and operations fall under English law and whatever other EU directives fall upon the football industry. Naturally and like all companies/ businesses in a free market environment, they are primarily concerned with profits. They exist as legal commercial entities to MAKE MONEY.

I believe you are referring to a romantic by-gone era of 100 years ago where footballers would go work at the factory before/after the game and football was a game for the poor populations and at an era where corporate structure in football was non existent.

Right now we are in an environment of highly distorted competition with regards the football industry as well as in a city/metropolis where a one bedroom flat commands nearly 1,500 pounds a month. The world is not nice and romantic. The world is hard and cold. Only one thing matters. Survival…i.e MAKING MONEY.

To finalise, i strongly believe that the bulk of fans frustrations stem from the general whorefication of sports and society/mankind in general.

You might live in a world of fantasy, but if Arsenal dont make money then there wont be an Arsenal to go and watch football.

Perhaps you should grow up and realise how the real world works.

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4 years ago

Jimbob

Just look at the German ticket prices to see how to run football as a business.

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4 years ago

Ces1ne

We might not like it, but it’s true…….times are changing

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4 years ago

0o2Be

Actually, it belongs in the category of sport – entertainment and MONEY derive from the competitive side of it.

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4 years ago

Unnecessarilystupid

Hold on a minute. £1500 a month for a one bed?

You don’t have to live in Bloomsbury you know?

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4 years ago

born and bred

As a not so condescending poster pointed out, somewhere up here, the west cannot be classified as one whole general way of doing things.

In the US sport is way more a business, than it is here in the UK or in Europe for that matter. You can’t simply buy a ‘franchise’ in Leicester and then move it to London (Referring to the erstwhile Seattle Supersonics). The way things work here are different. The team, and the ‘club’ are a fabric of society that they came up in. and while things might be changing, there are roots that must hold strong for them not to be changed in to something the community does not relate to..

the sheikhs can come and buy a club in manchester, but then they need to invest in that community as well, they can’t simply pack it up and move to London or whatever..

you are speaking of one model – the american franchise, owner driven model. sport in Europe traditionally does NOT favour that model…so please keep your condescending attitude to yourself.

If the club is increasing the ST prices – as a ST holder I for one am not happy – and oohhh it’s a business and business is to make money, doesn’t not cut muster.

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4 years ago

Touched Your Mother

I’m assuming the money is being used to keep the mutant rat hybrid on his head alive.

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4 years ago

fabulous

Interesting, could this be why we didn’t sign defensive reinforcements? If it is then fuck this shit I thought those days were over now we’re financially “competitive” again. So bloody frustrating.

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4 years ago

deji

how the heck did 3M escalate to the reason why we didnt sign a defensive reinforcement?

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4 years ago

fabulous

I didn’t mean we should use that £3mil on a defender, but if we easily have £3mil lying around somewhere for this purpose then there’s every possibility the next time we may see bonuses handed out to top execs, increase in their wages etc. May be far fetched I agree, but if it really is what’s holding us back then that really is disappointing cause we’re not far away from a complete team. Imagine if we have someone like Schneiderlin, on his performance last night I’m way more comfortable lining up against Chelsea with him rather than Arteta or Flamini (with all due respect they are good players, but always wanting against top level opposition).

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4 years ago

goonerbynature

I don’t think a lack of money was ever given as the reason for not signing a defensive player.

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4 years ago

duder

I obviously have nothing to do, because ive read this far down the abyss of comments. COYG!

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4 years ago

RobM

I think you’re reaching a bit here. And by “reaching” I mean “pulling bullshit out of your hole”.

Precisely what kind of worthwhile defensive reinforcement do you think we’d be signing for 3 mil these days, anyway?

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4 years ago

fabulous

If you can actually quote me saying we should’ve used that £3mil on reinforcements, then you may have a point. Thing is you can’t cause I never said so, and I’m afraid you’re the one that’s full of shit, putting shit in other people’s mouth while you’re at it. If you can actually understand context, I said I expected the days of us having to save up for a profit are over. Apparently there’s a possibility it’s not, seeing how we can cough up £3mil easily for something pretty trivial. What’s frustrating is we always seem a signing or two away from being a complete team, yet it may seem the board is holding us back for non footballing reasons. Jesus christ you lot, can never take constructive debate, and as soon as things get gloomy you’re nowhere to be seen.

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4 years ago

RobM

“If you can actually quote me saying we should’ve used that £3mil on reinforcements, then you may have a point. Thing is you can’t cause I never said so, and I’m afraid you’re the one that’s full of shit, putting shit in other people’s mouth while you’re at it.”

It’s pretty clear from the context of the comment I replied to that this is what you were hinting at.

As for things getting gloomy, I was at highbury when Mickey fucking Quinn put a hat-trick past us and we had to endure coventry fans chanting “who needs Ian Wright, we’ve got Mickey Quinn” for the rest of the match. I was there before that and I’ve been “here” ever since, too… Incidentally, I was at the game last night too. Much more there to be gloomy about than there is in this post imho.

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4 years ago

Ces1ne

You do realize your original comment is right up there for everyone to read, right? Like RobM said, it’s pretty clear where you were going with that comment.

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4 years ago

fabulous

Haha really! I have to type it up word by word and you still don’t get it. Suit your selves then. Weird how you can never discuss anything around here.

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4 years ago

Ozrus

It’s not that people won’t debate, it’s just that your original proposition was shit, or you didn’t express it well. Either way – thumbs down mofo!

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4 years ago

Alexstratz

Until clarification, this is despicable.

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4 years ago

begeegs

and after clarification, the man is money grabbing bastard! 😉

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4 years ago

JJGilheany

Does he really need £3m? Chump change really for him. That we have a spare £3m we can nominally hand out is the bigger question.

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4 years ago

Tony Hall

It had to happen sooner or later. He is not interested in the club, all he interested in is the profit he can make. Has the fucker even been to an arsenal game? Danny Fiszman will be turning in his grave!

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4 years ago

Rich

Interesting, can’t Imagine it’s anything too untoward as he’s not the only shareholder, what would Usmonov have to say if Stan just took £3million out of his investment for no legitimate reason?

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4 years ago

glovedhand

Would Usmanov do such a thing? Could fan pressure forces Kroenke to sell to him if this becomes in any way a regular thing? Shall we begin the disent now anyway?

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4 years ago

mashkeyboardgetusername

I do remember Usmanov making comments shortly after becoming a shareholder that he’d like to board to start paying dividends. He may have changed his mind since then, but I can’t help thinking if he was the majority shareholder he’d be doing the same thing, perhaps earlier/to a greater extent.

what kind of connection does roman abramovic have to chelsea? is he laundring money perhaps in london markets? lets take a wild guess…..

football = big business.

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4 years ago

D1x

Football has been a business since Arsenal climbed back into the First Division through, what some would call, unsavoury means. You need to get over this death of sport nonsense.

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4 years ago

Arty's Art

Things can descend from one example to the next.

Jorge Mendes, the Glaziers…

Tell me again how things aren’t getting worse?

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4 years ago

ST holder

worse ..in comparison to what?

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4 years ago

Andreas

In comparison to the past, Dr. Watson.

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4 years ago

RobM

Perhaps it shouldn’t but it _is_.

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4 years ago

rohit

okay. So, at one end, we have a team like Chelsea or ManC whose owner is putting in the money without the expectation of getting it back. It means they are simply treating football as sport, something that the will enjoy and the fans too. We call them sugar daddies.

Then, we have someone who may be investing in a club expecting that he will get some returns. We call such a person businessman and football must not be about business.

Of course the club is an investment. Presumably he plans to sell it at some point, for a very hefty profit at that.

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4 years ago

bazza_wicks

not sure you will ever get a straight answer to this from any one at the AGM, but sure annoying that with rising costs on tickets etc he is forcing the likes of me from attending as many matches as i would like to as for a season ticket in my lottery dreams, i love the way the club is run with its values but this may twist them sum what “ANNOYING”

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4 years ago

Arty's Art

American owners are, hands down, the worst a decent football fan could hope for.

It seems in these, dark, times we have a choice between a despotic ruler or oligarch running the club as a plaything for the excessive hedonistic purposes of people who have everything, or a silent but deadly yank investor who is expecting to deliver a profit to his shareholders or attached companies.

As it is i’d actually, all long-termism aside, have the former because at least it’s done for the spectacle rather than to line the pockets of people I detest. Walmart indeed.

Capitalist Yanks Out

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4 years ago

Doug

quit being a xenophobe – we’re not all bad

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4 years ago

yank me

I’m a yank. Fuck me. Yes, we are all bad. We pretty much ruin everything. Look at the comments here as proof. And fuck Walton Mart heir fucking Kroenke!

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4 years ago

yank me

Some “real business man” he is: Married a daughter of the heavily tax payer subsidized Walton clan, who bought him a few sports teams. In America tax payers pay to build stadiums that are only used for a few years before a team relocates, leaving empty holes in the middle of cities, all the while owners are pocketing money from competition exempt sports leagues. It’s a great model and I hope others get to enjoy the wonderful sports entertainment that comes from it.

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4 years ago

iman

prick

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4 years ago

Mooro

Businesses have to use suppliers and advisors – that’s normal.
Businesses pay those suppliers and advisors for services rendered – again, that’s normal.
Kroenke can’t just put his hand in the till – there has to be a clear audit trail of services rendered by his other company.
Had AN Other Company been paid £3m for these services, no one would give a shit.
I’m no Kroenke lover, but this just appears to be great headline copy, rather than what it actually is – the day to day mechanics of owing and operating a business.
I can divorce this from the 3% rise in my two season tickets which remains, in light of the club’s strong financial position, the real fucking disgrace.

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4 years ago

Gus Caesar

Spot on. Nice to see a little thought amongst the dribbling overemotional shit being spewed on here.

To be fair, we made that point in the article, but the lack of clarity is an issue. These ‘advisory fees’ could be £10m next time. That’s a half-decent centre-half + wages. People will always make those kind of correlations.

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4 years ago

Arty's Art

I think it is the experience of Manchester United under the Glaziers that informs our ire.

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4 years ago

Neil #2

And the fact that Stan has openly suggested that he admires the Glazers’ model….

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4 years ago

Gus Caesar

Maybe we should bomb the Sellotape factory because we also paid them a few quid for rolls of tape last year? Christ, maybe if we bought more sellotape next year that might be the reason we don’t sign player X too?!

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4 years ago

deji

lol……tanx for this. i dont understand the outrage. All of a sudden, the reason why we didnt sign a defender has become clear.

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4 years ago

Arty's Art

Gus Caesar: representative of KES and the united sellotape industries conglomerate. 🙂

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4 years ago

Gus Caesar

Ha, and we all thought he went to Hong Kong.

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4 years ago

Mooro

In order to satisfy corporate governance, I assume there would have had to have been a tender process undertaken, before his company were appointed.
There has to be clear justification that they were best placed and/or best value to carry out the work that they’ve done.
The club can’t just appoint a company because there’s mutual shareholding. That in itself would lead to more scrutiny from auditors around conflicts of interest.

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4 years ago

Gus Caesar

It’s the role of the Board to approve the expenditure and the role of shareholders to question it if they have concerns. Let’s see if they do.

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4 years ago

MTZ

Yep. Given his net worth, I think it’s far more likely that it’s money paid for some sort of service, such as improving the the web site, online store, Arsenal player and so on and so forth. I very much doubt he’s going to nick $3M when he’s worth billions.

At any rate, it is worth asking what it was for and what work was done. Always nice to know.

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4 years ago

Eric Blair

In what world are you living? ‘Billionaire not interested in free £3m’ is not a headline we will ever see in the current economic system.

This is not to say that there isn’t a valid reason as to why this payment was made, that should be investigated, more the distorted reality that £3m isn’t a lot of money or that he has so much why would he want more argument.

I have always been happy that Arsenal as a club do not pay dividends and I do not want that to change.

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4 years ago

Gus Caesar

I think we can all pack up now. George Orwell has spoken and said that it’s fine that a billionaire’s company has been paid £3m…

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4 years ago

RobM

Your final line is the salient point I think. The rise in ticket prices is a disgrace on its own.

This other thing is a side show… Which is not to say it doesn’t matter too of course.

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4 years ago

Dave

The real price of tickets has actually decreased

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4 years ago

Ralph77

This is wait and see. While so many American owners are awful awful human beings, if one reads a little on Silent Stan’s history then they’ll see he’s somewhat of unique duck. We may assume he cares little for the Arsenal, but the man is a big sports fan, he owns an NBA team, an MLS team, an NFL team, and an NHL team. His money comes from the Walmarts (and real estate) as well, if I’m not mistaken, so he’s already beyond flush. The worry is many of his teams, or “franchises” haven’t done too well, and been a bit stingy on wages, but we should acknowledge Arsenal have been going the other way there the last two summers. Ticket price increases aside, look at all the team searching for center-half cover this summer. None too much quality was available. United did fuck-all at the back aside from spending crazy on a LB they won’t play, and an Argentinian LB they are playing in the middle. Barca paid us 15mil for Vermalen (!!), and spent 20mil on Mathieu. Both silly figures for the players. Let’s be sober about this one for now.

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4 years ago

The Only Olivier is Giroud

Sad how I just read through the article and comments of Mesut saying what a family we are, how awesome it was reading through the comments and having such a nice feeling about how united, harmonious and happy all of us are to be Gooners, just for one greedy fucking tit to come spoil all that.

Owning a club as large as Arsenal requires you to be a custodian of the club, not a thief. You’re taking away from the pride of millions of people globally for causes unrelated to their pleasure. The fanbase needs to revolt against such actions with full force or I’m concerned it may become a regular number we see in our accounts. As Arsenal, we need every penny to compete with the financial prowess of the likes of Utd, Bayern, Barca and Madrid. Otherwise with FFP the income gap will just expand further. It’s a shame that the fans, the families who have supported this club for generations, the true custodians of the club have been stolen from. I hope Kroenke takes his hedonism backs to where it belongs in the American leagues. We have no place for it in the elite sporting competitions that The Arsenal is in.

His company did work for Arsenal. He needs to pay the people who did that work. I love Arseblog, but this article is a little bit of a stir – KSE didn’t do anything untoward, they rendered the club a service, invoiced them for it and were paid.

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4 years ago

Gus Caesar

To be fair to blogs, he’s just reporting the story – I don’t see it as a stir at all.

Gillespie Road – we’re not stirring but until we know what those ‘advisory services’ (let’s be honest, that could be any old thing) are then people will be suspicious.

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4 years ago

Rob67

I am no lover of Kronke and even less of a fan of the Board and the way they let Wenger run amok and don’t hold him to account.

Nonetheless – this site would be failing in it’s duty if it did not cover this issue. Others do. And some of us feel that the site has a tendency to ‘spin the party line’ anyway.

I don’t see much wrong with this as it’s money – so we’re told – going to KSE for payment for work employees did, rather than money going into dear old Stan’s pocket.

However, three things are of concern. Firstly – does this represent value for money. I guess we’ll never know, although KSE would.

Secondly, as Blogs says, this opens the door for further ‘payments’ and if this become a regular charge to AFC from KSE, some of us might smell a rodent pretty quick.

The third point that impacts all Season ticket holders, is – given the recent 3% ST price hike that even Swiss Ramble said was unjustified – will this charge, if it proves ongoing be financed by further ticket price rises ?

We won’t know the latter until next year. But if Kronke is looking to convert himself into an American version of Mike Ashley, I could think of few surer ways of doing it.

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4 years ago

neutral

agree with everything but the connection between ticket price increases and this charge could be completely random. If we dig through Arsenals accounts we would find plenty of items whose cost equaled the increase in ticket prices.

However, the increase in ticket prices is a disgrace for a club with the largest cash reserves in the PL, 3 times larger than the next largest -Man U.

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4 years ago

ST holder

“As Arsenal, we need every penny to compete with the financial prowess of the likes of Utd, Bayern, Barca and Madrid”

You can forget that. Its never going to happen. Arsenal is not as big as those clubs you mentioned. Arsenal would rather wait till all these big spenders get out of the picture through their own financial mismanagement or insolvency. Instead of putting themselves in a position where they have to spend and spend and then spend some more.

If you can allow the parallel example, look at it like high stakes poker. When you are playing poker against Roman Abramovic and the Arabs you dont go raising their bets nor do you go after them. You sit and wait till they fuck it up, or get bored and then you hit hard. The key element here is patience.

If you are looking for an Arsenal as big as say a Real Madrid or a Bayern Munich you cant possibly expect that to happen within 10 or even 15 or even 20 years, especially since Arsenal pressed the ‘reset’ button in 2005-2006. Besides, these kind of clubs have been top institutions of football for more than 5,6 7 decades. Arsenal has only just started to play in the same ‘tables’ as these clubs.

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4 years ago

ChrisDotNisbet

According to Google, SK has a net worth of £5.6b
What difference does £3m make to him?!

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4 years ago

LuisBoaMorte

I can’t imagine he got that rich with that sort of thinking.

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4 years ago

neutral

Actually I think he got rich marrying the Walmart heiress, not pinching pennies (millions are pennies to a guy like him)

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4 years ago

Gargoyle

Next year we’ll raise the ticket prices some more, even more than the actual inflation (just like this year) and he’ll take 6 mil. It’s frustrating enough when supporters pay a large portion of the money that is being spent (or not) on players…

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4 years ago

deji

….. and the club will become bankrupt due to the 6M paid to a company for rendering a service to Arsenal. OK guyz, lets just chill out a bit here. Next thing you know, you’ll be linking this to global warming.

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4 years ago

Richard

Well he bought the club as an investment, so hardy surprising that he’s taking a dividend every year??

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4 years ago

Rich

September 24, 2014
As a business person, I totally understand. I would take out some money too in his position. Why the fuck would I invest my millions otherwise?
To increase his share price?
To increase his business portfolio?

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4 years ago

Gargoyle

My fears are that he might try to take more. Three mil a year is fine as long as the club is moving forward financially. But if it means that we might miss out on some player or something similar to that, it should be out of the question. Don’t forget that he will make more money in the end when the value of the club increases and he sells his shares (whenever that is).

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4 years ago

Nic

I take dividends from my company every month. Stan didn’t buy Arsenal shares for fun.

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4 years ago

Gus Caesar

If it were a dividend then it would be fine. Of course it’s not a dividend though, it’s payment for services. The money will quite obviously pay Kroenke’s American staff for the work they’ve done for the club.

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4 years ago

RobM

Which is surely also fine, if the work is done.

If our club loaned some facilities to another club owned by Kronke, for example his Hockey team came to the UK for some contrived reason, and used our training facilities and Arsenal billed the Colorado Avalanche for the cost of the facilities used, wouldn’t that be reasonable? Would not we expect that to happen to cover the hole in our club’s budget this would leave? Why should his other businesses be different?

One of his businesses cross-charging another for services used is not the same thing at all as him raiding the club piggy bank, taking 3 million quid out in pound coins, filling a swimming pool with said coins and pretending he’s Scrooge McDuck, going for a swim in them, which is what some people here seem to think.

That’s not to excuse the PR own-goal that blogs alludes to. This is what he gets for being a silent background guy basically.

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4 years ago

Gus Caesar

I agree. I think a bit more transparency would help avoid the conspiracy theories, but it’s now the role of the shareholders to ask for this an ensure that the money was well-spent.

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4 years ago

ST holder

I dont understand above logic.

So in order to avoid the insecurities of paranoid and uneducated people, the club/company should come and outline its business, commercial and financial activities?

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4 years ago

Gus Caesar

It doesn’t have to, but it really depends how much it cares about its PR. It could ignore the obvious perception that some people will have that the £3m could have been a dividend in all but name. Or it can clarify if this is not actually the case. I don’t see the harm in a little bit more transparency in this regard, it is after all a very delicate matter.

Having said this, Kroenke has made it pretty clear that he doesn’t care about his own reputation in England.

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4 years ago

ST holder

Successfull PR does not mean letting the public know the A to Z of the company’s finances, though.

It is not Arsenal’s fault that themes of conspiracies pollute the atmosphere.

These ‘conspiracies’ have originated by rival shareholders (wont say names) and their support groups ( be it fans groups or media outlets) who are aiming to swift Arsenal fans opinion on current status quo.

There is a minority out there obsessed with presenting the current ownership model as corrupt and as ‘not doing enough’.

If you are saying that Arsenal, the company, should be paying attention to such poisonous ‘voices’ and aim to comfort them, then we are entering the logic of trying to prove a negative.

Instead of trying to prove a negative why dont these groups offer proof for their ‘corruption’ conspiracies ?

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4 years ago

ksasikumar90

I understand why it’s frustrating for us fans but from the point of view of the owner why would he invest so much money if can never get any profit from it. It makes sense if he is a rich fan who will spend his money to see arsenal succeed but the rest are just businessmen so as long as he doesn’t pile up debt on the club like the glazers do and we still spend most of our profit in strengthening the team revamping the training facilities investing on developing youth teams as arsenal are doing now I do not mind 3m pocketed by Kroenke. Those people who think it’s wrong are just hypocrites.

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4 years ago

Eric Blair

He will make a huge profit from the football club, when he sells his shares he is likely to make a profit of hundreds of millions of pounds. He invested because he saw the upward direction finances in football was making, Arsenal was an extremely safe bet, and he doesn’t have to do anything, only wait for the most convenient time to sell knowing there will always be plenty of buyers.

That people accept that he can simply take millions out of the club whilst putting no money in and only barely being a majority share holder shows how detached from reality and ethics football and perhaps society at large has become.

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4 years ago

Gus Caesar

I think the issue is more the assumption that football was ever detached from the real world. The only difference between now and 50 years ago is that more of the financial side of the game is known to the wider public. Ask someone like Pal Lydersen how ethical the game was…

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4 years ago

Possession

It’s 1% of the turnover. Peanuts and he is the majority shareholder. Come on guys we’ve got better things to talk about like him come Lukas didn’t give a fuck last night !

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4 years ago

Andy Tait

The simple point is that he is a billionaire that has seen the share price of his investment rocket. He’s put nothing in and has now begun to take funds out. This is in complete contrast to the owners of Chelsea and Manchester City. We have the wrong billionaire and there is nothing we can do about it. From now on when we say we are ‘financially competitive’ it should be with the caveat ‘as long as SK owner does take the money’.

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4 years ago

Gus Caesar

It’s not the first time. He’s taken fees for being on the Board for a few years.

To all the people talking about Stan ‘putting his money in the till’, please read @Mooro’s comment.

His company rendered Arsenal football club a service. They invoiced them for it. Arsenal paid the invoice. It’s normal business practice, they need a paper trail for audit purposes.

I’m no big fan of Stan but he is the best of a bad bunch. I’d rather him than that crook Usmanov, whose shady past makes me embarrassed that he is in any way associated with our football club.

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4 years ago

Andy Tait

*doesnt (obviously *does wouldn’t make sense)

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4 years ago

2014-2015 = the year we've been waiting for

After what we’ve been through, can’t really complain about such a small ‘dividend’.

The past 12 months we have…
– given wage increases to Cazorla. Mertesacker, Koscielny and Ramsey to put beyond doubt their futures at the club.

– splashed the cash on Alexis, Chambers, Welbeck, Debuchy and Ospina.

I even offset the 3% ticket increase by de-subscribing from BT Sport TV (not contributing to Michael Owen’s wages was an added bonus).

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4 years ago

Ces1ne

That last sentence is golden

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4 years ago

Goon

For him to admire the Glazers is worrying. I like how our club operates.

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4 years ago

Bellerin's Bellend

3million is a pittance compared to the amount Chelsea owe Abramovich. The amount he is owed runs into hundreds of millions. Chelsea are well and truly fucked when Roman calls time on his Chelsea adventure. Good. Fuck them.

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4 years ago

Erzengel

I’m giving you a like for your rather magnificent username.

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4 years ago

PGunner

Hmmmm, maybe he needs a new super boat or something such like, these things don’t come cheap you know! I suspect he’s more bothered about looking good in the country he lives in rather than here hence the extraction of Arsenal profits not Denver Avalanche or whatever he owns stateside.

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4 years ago

RobM

You’ve verified that nothing similar to this has happened at any stateside club or related business he owns then?

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4 years ago

PGunner

I have not, pure and silly speculation on my part. I neither have the inclination or time to look into it. Do feel free to enlighten me if you can verify this either way though mate?

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4 years ago

Oberon

So let me get this straight people are getting up in arms because the guy who effectively owns the business is making money of it after it made record revenue and profit? Seriously this is ridiculous, football clubs are not charities so I don’t see anything wrong as long as we can keep purchasing talent.

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4 years ago

Goonersince77

Once again another post goes awry with nitpicking, grammar correction and good old name calling. Fucking keyboard warriors the lot of you.

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4 years ago

Arsene's Apologist

This is actually pretty surprising to me on this site; sounds more like goal.com sensationalizing something. We all agree that Arsenal FC paid 3m to a company for consulting and media work (which, incidentally, is outstanding if they helped with the Arsenal Player site). We appreciate the work, it deserves to be paid, but because our owner owns that company, we get up in arms UNTIL we hear exactly what work was done?

We are required, then, to be suspicious and assume the worst until he explains himself to a now-hostile crowd. I’m disappointed with arseblog news, and I’m typically a huge fan.

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4 years ago

Jeff

The Arsenal Website is by modern web standards a really good piece of work. So is the tactics stats pages, etc.
But it is in no way anything close to even 1 million. Even with added social media consulting costs and other things.

In the end, I’ll agree that there is a piece of info that is missing: *what* was paid with that money exactly?

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4 years ago

Arsepedant

And you are a web designer yourself, know what you are talking about, and your company could have produced exactly the same product for considerably less than three million? I work for a software company, and I doubt we could have done it for just three million. There’s a lot more to it than just writing a bit of code.

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4 years ago

Jeff

I am a developper and think it could have been done. But you are your own judge.

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4 years ago

Arsepedant

Fair enough.

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4 years ago

Gus Caesar

Like it or not, it’s an interesting news story and its relevant to the club (particularly if it really is a dividend in all but name). All blogs has done is report that, there’s nothing sensationalist in what he’s written.

I don’t think there’s any sensationalist in the way we’ve reported this story. We could have gone with a much more clickbait-y headline, we acknowledged that these kind of payments are not unusual, and we even said it’s not the case that Kroenke simply pocketed £3m.

However, it’s still a story relevant to the day to day running of the club and worthy of discussion.

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4 years ago

NyGooner

In a closely held corporation, the majority stockholders control everything. Sure there’s a board of directors, but the majority stockholder is allowed to hire or fire the majority of the board. So the board will do the bidding of the majority stockholder or be fired.

However, the interests of minority stockholders must be protected as well. A company can’t funnel money out the back door to the majority owners. Profit distributions must be proportionally paid to all owners. Even though Arsenal is a closely held entity, it’s finances are subject to significant public scrutiny. There is simply no way for Kronke to get a way with an illegitimate payment to line his own pockets that cuts out the minority owners. They’d have him in court in a minute if he did that, and for whatever you think of Kronke, he’s no dummy.

By in large, sports club owners make their money on appreciation of their asset, not annual profits. As we’ve seen from some recent franchise sales in the US, that appreciation can be massive.

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4 years ago

Anonymous Physicist

Best comment I’ve read all day.

TL;DR:

We may not know what the services were, but Usmanov has the right to know. If the services weren’t worth 3M, but rather a thinly veiled attempt to take money out of the club into Kroenke’s pockets, Usmanov will sue his ass (and win).

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4 years ago

Sharpehunter

It is of course important to remember that the vast majority of Arsenal Fans have no concept of how the stock market, commercial enterprises, complex organisations, shareholder management, investor protection, the LSE, FCA or anything else actually works. A bit like that c**t Adrian Durham who doesn’t even understand the first thing about football.

Which is why newspapers like the Guardian, Daily Mail, Sun, Mirror and the Metro simply print a whole raft of entirely unsubstantiated, unfounded bollocks knowing that 10′ or thousands of fans will start stamping their feet and crying like newly torched babies in anger and frustration.

It is a baseless story, has no truth in the context it was written and I suspect they will themselves be receiving letters from Stan’s and the Clubs solicitors.

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4 years ago

slim shady

Dear Stan,

Go Fuck yourself

Sincerely slim

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4 years ago

Dave

Before everyone flips a lid remember that the money went to his company KSE LLC. While I can admit its unclear how the 3 mil will be spent or if he just pockets it but most likely it will be used for operations for the company as a whole i.e. (paying employees, accountants, auditors, taxes).

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4 years ago

badaab

Just be thankful that Kroenke hasn’t managed the business side of the Arsenal like he has with other franchises he owns… The Denver Nuggets are a prime example of this- a good team with some great players, who were then all sold to balance the books and make the players happy… oh, wait.

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4 years ago

SFGiants

I’m just glad Arsenal isn’t run like his St. Louis Rams.

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4 years ago

Highbury Baptist Church

We need to picket his house Westboro Baptist Church style

GOD HATES STANS!

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4 years ago

Sharpehunter

Truly extraordinary isn’t it that a simple cross company / internal company charge for services rendered can be blown up into such a load of horse shit.

Any complex organisation from the NHS to BP does this all the time. The NHS has now has an Executive Development Business which also incorporates an Executive Search capability who charge internally across the NHS for services rendered, note the key words here SERVICES RENDERED!!

I have a suspicion that last year Arsenal PLC probably made a whole raft of payments to internal and external organisations, suppliers and services which approximately totalled the £3m raised from an increase in ticket prices…

The Guardian truly is a fucking letting itself down here. Does it have aspirations of becoming the next Daily Mail!

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4 years ago

SP

Fucking Stan.. I just dislike him and his ownership of arsenal, do he even care about football? How often do we see him at our matches?

Also the previous accounts of last year showed €220m was it? 😛 I sincerely hope the cunt won’t take out this money for own personal useage.

Keep up with the programme. Have you read the atl post or any of those btl? The point is simply that the FC and especially their supporters would like a break down of what the 3ml was paid for exactly, services rendered or a shady dividend. All should become clearer at the AGM. No one will want it to remain opaque, including Kroenke I would imagine.

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4 years ago

mjw3

Who said the money was going directly into his pocket? I’m sure a dividend would be disclosed as such. Payments to KSE are just that.
Regarding his wealth, it’s of his own doing. A Walmart heiress wouldn’t marry an average bloke…
I’m not a Kronke fan. I’ve always believed he is a specialist in sports mediocrity, with a goal of keeping a club just successful enough to be profitable (4th place anyone????).

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4 years ago

Wow guys

Is it wrong to laugh at the reaction to this? If KSE didn’t get 3M then ticket prices would be down and we would have more defenders lol that’s just funny. But its a healthy way to vent.

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4 years ago

Policeman's Bangers 'N' Mash

I say £3,000,000 is just what Kroenke deserves. We are total rubbish yet we still make tons of dough. Fair play.

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4 years ago

HARKNOWHEARTHEARSENALSING

KF looks embarrased.

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4 years ago

RedMJ

It is a subject worthy of discussion Arse blog but some of these comments betray a childlike absence of common sense and intellect. Some apply zero thought before bashing out expletives and diatribe based on nothing more than their own prejudices and grudges. And all about a club that is a model of commercial success that is always building and moving forward in a sound financial way. So what if SK did take something out for himself? I doubt it, but then I don’t know anymore than the angry keyboard warriors that just want to judge everything the club does in a negative way. So what if my ST price is high? I have a choice. And guess what, there are 40000 people waiting to take my seat. That is the sole reason, rightly or wrongly, that ST prices are what they are. Not because the owner wants a few extra dollars in his bank account.

You’re right, you do have a choice, but part of the reason ticket prices are so high is because football is kinda unique. If the cinema charged you £40 to see a film you can ‘fuck that’ even if your favourite movie star is in it.

But football fans are a captive audience, people who rarely lose their love/passion for their team and the people who run football clubs know that and exploit it. That’s what Arsenal did with the 3% rise this year.

I think it’s coincidence that what Kroenke’s company was paid was around the same amount, but there’s not one justification for them putting the prices up other than they knew they could.

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4 years ago

kona cadabra

Well, how can i say this, football clubs are not charities dear Arseblog.

Of course they will milk it. They would be stupid if they didnt.

They are correctly taking advantage of you, me and everyone else who treats football larger than it is.

If you have a product that creates such massive demand the price will go up.

Secondly, if Arsenal fans feel so negative about it then they could do like other fans do in Europe and demonstrate against “modern football”, instead of creating problems to the club they supposedly love.

I don’t think any milking was done. It does look like a legitimate company to receive strategic advise from.

While the owner is the same, I doubt the executives at Altitude TV is going to work for free.

They have their KPIs and if that can be enhanced by Arsenal’s need for advice, so but it. You think their own KPIs are linked to Arsenal’s PNL? Of course not. If Arsenal wants advice, they are entitled to charge for it.

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4 years ago

Ben

To be honest, if any of that 3 million has gone towards the cost of producing Arsenal Player I’m over the moon about it!
I dont own a tv or sky or any of that other bollocks, and feel lucky to be able to watch all the matches and interviews for free.

So thanks for offering that service Arsenal!
And apologies Stan (on behalf of all those on the uninformed bandwagon) if your company has done some amazing work which is now being pushed in your face.

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4 years ago

RedMJ

It’s still simple supply and demand AB. It just so happens that our club has a greater demand from those people who can’t break their addiction (me included). If the ST waiting list disappeared and (real) attendances were dropping, ST prices would drop too.

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4 years ago

hammeringhank

Like stated earlier this is common buisness practice, so do you want a little cheese with that wine?